By Daisy Luther

EDIT AGAIN:  This recall affects 130 more products but the FDA is under a gag order not to name them. 

Full Story Here

EDIT: The recall list has been updated to include these additional products:

• Sargento Sliced Colby
• Sargento Sliced Muenster
• Sargento Sliced Tomato & Basil Jack
• Sargento Shredded Reduced Fat Colby-Jack
• Sargento Sliced Colby-Jack Cheese
• Sargento Shredded Chef Blends 4 Cheese Pizzeria
• Artisan Blends Double Cheddar Shredded Cheese
• Ultra Thin Sliced Longhorn Colby
• Chef Blends Shredded Nacho & Taco
• Chef Blends Shredded Taco

Sargento has issued a massive recall on cheese due to possible contamination with listeria.

The affected products are:

• Sargento Sliced Pepper Jack Cheese
• Sargento Chef Blends Shredded Taco Cheese
• Sargento Off The Block Shredded Fine Cut Colby-Jack Cheese
• Sargento Off The Block Shredded Fine Cut Cheddar Jack Cheese

Listeria is a potentially deadly form of food poisoning that has become all-too-common in processed foods lately.

The Food Poison Journal says:

Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria) is a foodborne disease-causing bacteria; the disease is called listeriosis. Listeria can invade the body through a normal and intact gastrointestinal tract. Once in the body, Listeria can travel through the blood stream but the bacteria are often found inside cells. Listeria also produces toxins that damage cells. Listeria invades and grows best in the central nervous system among immune compromised persons, causing meningitis and/or encephalitis (brain infection). In pregnant women, the fetus can become infected, leading to spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, or sepsis (blood infection) in infancy.

Here’s the press release issued by the FDA:

Deutsch Kase Haus, LLC of Middlebury, Ind. has notified Sargento Foods Inc. that a specialty Longhorn Colby cheese they supplied to Sargento must be recalled due to a potential contamination of Listeria monocytogenes. No illnesses have been reported.

The affected retail products are Sargento Ultra Thin Sliced Longhorn Colby, 6.84 oz., UPC 4610000228, with “Sell By” dates of “12APR17B” and “10MAY17B” and Sargento Chef Blends Shredded Nacho & Taco Cheese, 8 oz., UPC 4610040041, with “Sell By” dates of “H14JUN17” and “H12JUL17.” These products were packaged at the Sargento Plymouth, Wis. facility.

Out of an abundance of caution, Sargento is also recalling the following products because they were packaged on the same line as the affected cheese:

• Sargento Sliced Colby-Jack Cheese, 12 oz., UPC 4610000109 with “Sell By” date of “11JUN17B”
• Sargento Sliced Pepper Jack Cheese, 12 oz., UPC 4610000108 with “Sell By” dates of “12JUN17B”, “09JUL17B” and “10JUL17B”
• Sargento Chef Blends Shredded Taco Cheese, 8 oz., UPC 4610040002 with “Sell By” dates of “H14JUN17”, “F28JUN17” and “D28JUN17”
• Sargento Off The Block Shredded Fine Cut Colby-Jack Cheese, 8 oz., UPC 4610040014 with “Sell By” date of “F05JUL17”
• Sargento Off The Block Shredded Fine Cut Cheddar Jack Cheese, 8 oz., UPC 4610040076 with “Sell By” date of “F05JUL17”

No other Sargento branded products are affected by this recall.

Consumers can check if their product is affected by the recall by visiting info.sargento.com and using the “Product Check” tool. This webpage will be updated with the latest information about the recall. Consumers can also call Sargento Consumer Affairs at 1-800-243-3737 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Central Time), or submit questions to the “Contact Us” page at sargento.com.

Our unwavering commitment to safety is at the core of everything we do at Sargento. We are vigilantly monitoring this issue to ensure the situation is resolved in a timely manner, and are working in full cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration to rigorously investigate this issue.